Human Resources, as a whole, is a generally thankless position to pursue.
It is, at its heart, “internal customer support.”
The field encompasses everything from recruiting, hiring, payroll (including International, Federal, State and Local compliance), benefits, training, culture, reviews, layoffs/terminations.
For that privilege, the employees are often paid relatively low, and many HR positions have knowledge of the rest of the company’s salaries – on top of being required (by their position) to handle the complaints and issues of the employees around them, always with a graceful demeanor.
A great HR team is a signal that a company is running well. A poorly run HR team can stop a company in its tracks.
This is not a position for the faint of heart.
With that, there are some shining examples in Silicon Valley right now. Every year, GlassDoor and Fortune poll employees of companies around the country to find out what their culture is like. Fortune describes it thusly:
“Two-thirds of a company “s survey score is based on the results of the Trust Index Employee Survey, which is sent to a random sample of employees from each company. This survey asks questions related to employees ” attitudes about management “s credibility, overall job satisfaction, and camaraderie. The other third is based on responses to the Culture Audit, which includes detailed questions about pay and benefit programs and a series of open-ended questions about hiring practices, methods of internal communication, training, recognition programs, and diversity efforts. “[1]
Based on the 2015 results, there were 4 Silicon Valley companies that made both the GlassDoor and Fortune top Company to Work For lists:
- Adobe
- Protiviti
Taken from that research, we can be assured that the people in charge of HR at those companies are doing something right.
At Google, SVP Laszlo Bock released Let’s Make Work Better. Research, ideas, and practices from Google and others, to put people first.
Until recently, Janet Van Huysse was the long-time Head of Diversity at Twitter, her efforts in no small part allowing for Twitter’s inclusion on the list above.
Donna Morris has been the head of HR at Adobe for years. She abolished their performance review process and has been responsible for many initiatives that continue to make them a leading company to work for.
And over at Protiviti, Scott Redfearn took his years of experience with distributed teams at Accenture to create a unique rewards-based thriving culture for a global team.
Not only are these the top Senior HR executives in Silicon Valley, they each model what HR departments and corporate culture should be.
Footnotes
[1] 100 Best Companies to Work For
Originally Posted: https://www.quora.com/Who-are-the-best-senior-startup-HR-executives-in-Silicon-Valley-and-why
Originally Posted On: 2016-02-15